Sea Life Aquarium

Last week Ben and I took Kinley on a weeknight to the new Grapevine Sea Life Aquarium. We had tried to go on a Saturday not too long ago and the line just to buy a ticket was hours long. The exhibit just opened in mid-July so it is still all the rage around here. The weeknight option was way better and we walked right up and in. It really was so cool once you got in there. There are TONS of fish and very tailored to children. How cute is this daddy / daughter duo!

Pros and cons:

Pros:

• Children 2 and under are free (Kinley!)
• There are TONS of fish to look at and lots of cool things for kids to do (i.e. the 360 degree water tunnel, getting to touch starfish and crabs, climbing through exhibits like the sting rays and feeling like you are in the tank, getting to stand on glass aquariums and see fish swim under your feet)
• There are lots of sharks, especially in the "Shark Walk" and the 360 degree tunnel and Kinley LOVED that
• It can take as little or as much time as you want to go through (took us about an hour)
• There is a play area for kids at the end with tunnels and slides

Cons:

• Adult tickets are not cheap ($20.56 after tax at the door, $17.48 if you buy online ahead of time)
• Everything costs something (i.e. a map through the aquarium costs $4 at the door but, you can print one off at home here, you must have socks for the play area...which they sell, you have to walk through the gift store to get out and that can be a trap...stay strong!)
• They advertise more sea life on their website than we actually saw (i.e. sea turtles and octopus) so, don't talk those up to your kiddos
• You cannot use your flash on your camera to take any pictures and it is pretty dark in there...so that is why the pics are not too great.

Overall, we all really enjoyed going and Ben and I thought it was definitely worth it for the first time. We would not have thought that if we had to wait in a long line to buy a ticket or fight a crowd to see the exhibit. We also probably will not go back for a while...maybe a once a year thing.

Kinley giving a cheese before we walked in and had to turn our flash off....she looks so big to me in this picture!